Zn and Si Effects on SPS?

yalpal

New member
Hey everyone,

I have been having a lot of trouble with corals in my SPS dominated tank over the past few months. Long story short, my tank suffered massive losses of corals. I mainly had Acropora and Montipora colonies, but also lost mostly all the other LPS other than Euphyllias. All other inverts and clams are fine. After multiple tests, water changes, and searching for other problems I sent a sample of water to Triton in Germany to check for things I could not test myself. Mostly everything was within normal ranges except for Zinc and Silicon.

Here are the findings:

Zn Analysis: 17.40 µg/l Setpoint: 4.00 µg/l Devistion: 13.40


Si Analysis: 595.30 µg/l Setpoint: 100.00 µg/l Deviation: 495.30

I was previously using Tropic Marin Pro salt, but recently switched over to ESV. I frequently check the TDS of my top-off water, which is nearly always at 0. Also, I could not find anything rusting in or near the tank.

Do you think one or both of these could be largely contributing to my tank's recent struggles? Also, where would they be coming from, and how can I eliminate them? I am currently running carbon and doing 100 gallon water changes weekly. Please help!

Thanks all!
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I also had a Triton test and my Zn (zinc) tested at a similar level (15.37). I don't have any troubles with stony corals (SPS or LPS) at this level.

My Si (silicon) was lower than the set point, however.

The high Si may not be in a useable form. Randy's article is very informative and takes a look at ICP testing, sources, etc.:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/1/aafeature1
 
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